Tips on Salvaging Range Lead

[sheepdog]

Nice operation you got going there! Do you sell reclaimed shot as well as smelted lead? I'm planning on shooting some trap this summer and it would be nice to have a cheaper source of #8 shot than what the local shops want for it ($40 per 25# yikes). I would think you could sell it even cheaper than the 60# for $50 delivered since you don't have to smelt it into ingots.

GrizzLee might try accurateleadrecovery.com. They don't sell to individuals I don't think but basically sell to ranges either straight up or give bags for letting them run the machines on your range. They told me they sold to my range yesterday 25# bags of 8 shot for $14. Sure they will resell it to use with a little markup but thats pretty cheap.

[Brick85]

I'm loving the idea of reclaiming the birdshot from the range. We have a trap range and I'll have to see if I can find piles of the stuff just lying around. That'd make my life a lot easier and cheaper, as I was wondering how I could possibly get birdshot except for buying it. Buckshot you can cast, but birdshot is just too much work.

One thing I'm wondering in all of this (and in casting in general) is about contamination of one's surroundings with lead. I know that lead doesn't migrate, but when it oxidizes, could it contaminate soil? Or when you sluice it out, would the water contaminate your groundwater or soil? I'd hate to decide to put in a vegetable garden a few decades down the line and then find myself getting dumber than I already am. . .

[Russel Nash]

^^^ I think it has to do with the pH of the soil what happens to the lead long term.

I think if you have an alkaline soil, your lead in the ground will be okay.

[shickf3]

I got a bucket of range scrape. I need to know how others get the lead out of total metal jackets.

[Brick85]

Went to the range today and scraped the surface where all the birdshot had landed. There were a couple beautiful patches of shot-colored ground on the hillside, and now I left a big brown line up the side. A 1-gallon paint can seemed to weigh about 50 lbs carrying it out (it was heavy enough that it hurt my back to carry it in one hand, and I'm used to carrying 50 lb sheets of sheetrock on one side). Must have been mostly shot. Can't wait to separate it from the dirt--I'm thinking to try a screen on my vibratory case cleaner and see if I can shake out the dirt without resorting to water.

I got a bucket of range scrape. I need to know how others get the lead out of total metal jackets.

Someone suggested hitting them with a hammer on a concrete floor to breach the jacket, so the lead will leak out when it melts. Folks have mentioned putting a heavy cover on the pot because lead might squirt, although it seems like the hammer trick would solve that problem.

[Brick85]

schickf3,

There's more info in this thread (I was asking the same question):

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...323#post563323

[Brick85]

Well, I finally got around to building a sluice and trying to separate the birdshot from the dirt and the clay target pieces. Didn't have much success, but that's because I didn't have much of a sluice, so it turns out.

I built it out of some scrap cedar planking that was rough on one side; I figured if I kept it at a low angle, used water slowly, and kept the rough side up maybe it'd catch the shot. It did, but not well enough that I could wash away the clay. I had good results with washing the dirt out as it sat on a screen, however, and then putting the target/lead mixture in a big pan and shaking it. The clay bits rose to the top and I could scoop many of them off. Still nowhere near good enough to re-use, even if I rolled them down a board to sift out the round ones. And I only did about half a gallon.

On a "lighter" note I found that a gallon of this very lead rich "dirt" only weighs about 30 lbs. Talk about disappointed, and now I feel weak to boot! I should be able to carry 4 gallons if I balance it out, not just two!

I'll try making a real sluice with riffles next; I'm thinking I might just get a 3' or 4' section of 1x8 scrap and run it across the table saw at regular intervals to put 1/8" kerfs in, to hold the shot and allow me to use greater water velocity.

My goal is to have a portable setup I can drag to the range and use without power or running water, because I expect to have access to neither when the range is closed, which is when I'd collect the shot. There's a stream running through that I could use as a water source if I slugged a few buckets at a time, but I don't want to let any of the off-wash get into the stream for fear of contaminating it. I know the EPA tests the stream every few months for lead contamination and I don't want to be the one who got the range shut down. But I figure dumping a small amount of water on the ground when I'm done can't hurt, since the soil and shot and junk all get rained on anyway. I'll just do it away from the stream. If I bring a small bucket I can just scoop up water from the bottom of the sluice box and pour it out into the top again, and it'll get it clean enough, especially if I dump the water every so often.

The sluice boxes I've seen for gold have angle iron "riffles" that catch the heavy stuff as water rushes over it. I see pictures of these sluices basically sitting in a stream. I know I won't have anything like that kind of water flow even if I were to use a sump pump instead of a bucket to recycle the water. I'm hoping kerfs will do.

Does anyone else have good ideas about this? I've read plenty about reclaiming boolits, but not much on reclaiming shot. If this gets too frustrating, maybe I'll just make ingots out of the stuff and offer it to one of our shot makers for a 50/50 split or something.

[shotman]

On your shot deal Use a shop vac. You will need 2 hoses to make a round loop about 6ft in diameter. Suck shot up slowly and it will drop in the low part of the loop rest of the lighter trash will suck into the vac. You need to do small amounts as the hose will fill up with about 2 qts of shot

[Russel Nash]

^^^^ Hmmn... interesting idea about the shop vac.

Hmmn... Now you gots me thinking.

Maybe I mentioned this already, maybe I didn't I can't remember....

what I do with the lead, sand and wood chips that I collect from my one range's bowling pin pit, is I built a 2 X 4 ramp. The tubbafours are 8 feet long. I built a frame about a foot apart. Then I stapled 1/8" by 1/8" wire mesh to the underside.

Then I put two 40 inch or so long legs on one end. These legs sit on a really low deck/porch.

Then I tie wired my Porter-Cable Sawzall/Tigersaw (without a blade) to one side of the frame.

Then I put a piece of tie wire around the trigger of the tool. Then I plug it in. Then I twist the wire around the trigger just so to get the whole thing vibrating.

Then I put a 5 gallon bucket of bowling pin pit lead and sand and wood chips on the deck. Climb on top of the deck and slowly pour the concoction onto the very top of the ramp.

The vibration from the sawzall gets things moving downhill at just the correct speed. Too fast and everything just skips right across the screen with nothing falling through. If it is too slow, then everything just stops.

I probably do need to set the bottom end up so that that the good stuff falls into a big tub of water. I get lots and lots of wooden splinters in with my melt. Yeah, it does kinda act like a self-flux, but MAN! does it produce a ton of ash in my little cast iron dutch oven. It would be nice if I could get all the wooden splinters to float to the top. And the water might just wash off the bullets enough so there is less dross I have to skim off the top.

It probably took me longer to type all this in and explain than to actually build this mesh ramp.

The Mark II version, I think, is going to be one of those big blue plastic drums. I am thinking about chucking a big hole saw into a drill and cutting some holes in the side of the drum. Then using the same 1/8" by 1/8" mesh to cover the holes.

Then building a frame out of some more tubbafours. Then putting non-swiveling casters on this frame. Then spinning the drum on top of these casters. Throw in the sand and the bullets, spin it, and hopefully the sand and the majority of wooden splinters will drop through the mesh.

[WILCO]

At our club, we're not allowed to mine for lead, so I just pick it up when I'm putting down clay targets on the plinking range.

This is a great thread by the way!

[smaj100]

I'm new to this forum and have recently been talking with my local indoor range. I was told if I was willing to clean the range backstop I could have the lead. There is probably 10k lbs of lead/jackets on the floor in the backstop room.

I've been using ww in the past and got a few buckets of lead today to melt out and check it out. It does appear to be much softer.

Is anyone interested in this kind of lead with ww and other components getting harder to find? I'm considering increasing the size of my melting pot on the deep fryer burner. I'm going to call the local salvage yard and inquire about scrap copper.

Would the final melted fluxed ingots be worth more than just a box of range scrap?

[SciFiJim]

It would be worth more because of the effort used to clean it. However it is still range scrap lead of unknown composition. While all shootable lead is desirable, I would rank range scrap near the bottom of the list. The most desirable of course would be from foundries with predetermined, known alloys. Metal that comes from other sources, plumbers, WWs, roof flashing, generally has know properties.

[RP]

I have mined alot of range lead unknow true but it was all shot out of a gun of somesort. Which mine had alot of shotgun slugs in it which are softer alloy most of the time. The copper jackets which most are red brass not copper I sold at the scrap yard made good money off of it. The lead I made shot out of worked great now i dont make shot and use it in my boolits which i add lino to for hardness. Free is good selling the jackets is better.

[briang]

...snip...

Would the final melted fluxed ingots be worth more than just a box of range scrap?

To some people it would, to others it wouldn't. Some people like to melt and flux it themselves so they know what it's in the ingots.

[mold maker]

It's all according to how much known alloy they have left in their stash. With the WW resource in question and more folks taking an interest in casting, it will always be in demand.
Free lead is free lead no matter the source. Get it while you can. If you don't, you'll kick your self as soon as it's gone.
If it's in your stash, you can always trade or sell what you can't use. All you'll have in it is your labor.

[clodhopper]

Had nice evening mining BP bullets Sat.
Thunder storms hit late afternoon the people from our 1500+ member club were elsewhere. Went out to 300 yards with 1/2" screen in wood frame, shovel and bucket.
Was windy with lighting strikes in the distance and feeling kinda like a grave robber in a grade B horror movie. I shoveled and sifted.
I came home with two gallons of nice nuggets. Mostly cast BP rifle bullets.
Have been mining the pistol bays for quite a while. The clay birds some use for targets there are a real problem in the smelting pot but the shop vac trick sounds like it will work. already have two hoses so it will not cost anything to try.
Some folks do not like to use range scrap but my 1911 never complains about it.

[Brick85]

Clay targets are a problem in the melting pot? How so? I guess I better make sure to clear them out real good when I melt down recovered birdshot.

[sheepdog]

Clay targets are a problem in the melting pot? How so? I guess I better make sure to clear them out real good when I melt down recovered birdshot.

They dont melt, leave paint in your pot, and can retain moisture.

[Acronn]

As far as the shopvac idea, the gold miners today use a converted leaf blower to mine in dry areas. Uses a 5 gallon bucket to catch the dirt with the gold -or lead= in it. Gold's a lot harder to find. If you have a leaf blower already, you are halfway there. Here is a link to how it is done. Has really good suction, but is loud and dusty as the light stuff blows out. http://www.nuggetshooter.ipbhost.com...howtopic=13011

[clodhopper]

Those Clay birds turn black, bubble, and stick to the pot. Doesn't seen to affect the lead but scraping the pot while fluxing is a bumpy affair.